Mexico Unanimously Passes New Climate & Energy Law

Somehow this one passed us by, a pretty glaring omission: Mexico has passed a serious climate change and renewable energy law. It's just the second time that a nation has put long-term climate targets into national law.

Some of the highlights of the legislation, passed unanimously, BBC reports:

30% lower emissions compared to business-as-usual by 2020, and 50% lower by 2050, with a national reporting scheme, covering various economic sectors, planned.

35% of all energy must come from renewable sources by 2024, with government agencies obliged to use renewable energy sources.

Note that those emission reduction targets are not actually emission reductions, per se, rather they are reductions in the rate of increase. A bit of fiddling while the planet burns perhaps, considering that even Mexico's comparatively modest carbon emissions are likely above where we need to get to collectively.

The link above has some decent background analysis of why the law has such wide support in Mexico.

One quote in particular jumps out though. Munoz Ledo of the Democratic Revolution Party and head of the Foreign Affairs Commission:

Mexico is aware this is the end of the oil era, so we need to implement this fiscal reform, and if we go through it, we'll be able to do without this oil. Power for the US is based on the army and energy and oil. In 1989 you had [George] Bush senior coming into office from an oil background; if you go through Clinton and Obama, they serve the oil interest first. We're talking about the politics of neo-liberalism here which is based on oil interests and indebtedness - this is why so many in the US don't accept climate change, even though it's based on scientific evidence.

Essentially an accurate summation of both US foreign policy and why US politicians lag so far behind the world in just accepting that climate change is happening, let alone doing something about it.